Notes: Havlat, who left Saturday's 2-1 win against the Nashville Predators late in the second period, did not travel with the Sharks for their two-game road trip, which concludes in Calgary on Wednesday. … Kearns was called up from Worcester of the American Hockey League and will play just his sixth NHL game in an eight-season professional career. It also will be his first game in his hometown of Vancouver, where his dad, Dennis, played 677 NHL games as a Canucks defenseman from 1971-81.

I would rather he just use that 4th line as an energy line and put Schroeder on the 3rd line to be a setup man with Booth and Kassian. Of course Vigneault can't seem to deal with having a 3rd line that is more geared for scoring than playing shutdown hockey. Oddly enough the most exciting team we've seen in Vancouver in the last few years was when we were going strong with 3 lines contributing on the scoreboard and a fourth line that would grind it out, eat minutes, and play at least somewhat responsibly. Then he got Pahlsson and the team floundered, ultimately backing into the President's Trophy and bowing out in 5 playoff games.

Meds wrote:I would rather he just use that 4th line as an energy line and put Schroeder on the 3rd line to be a setup man with Booth and Kassian. Of course Vigneault can't seem to deal with having a 3rd line that is more geared for scoring than playing shutdown hockey. Oddly enough the most exciting team we've seen in Vancouver in the last few years was when we were going strong with 3 lines contributing on the scoreboard and a fourth line that would grind it out, eat minutes, and play at least somewhat responsibly. Then he got Pahlsson and the team floundered, ultimately backing into the President's Trophy and bowing out in 5 playoff games.

I would agree, although IMO having the 4th line as a checking line rather than an "energy line" might be the way to go. Instead of having the 4th line just to run around and try to hit people, some more big wingers in the top 3 lines to deliver the body on every shift, and have the 4th line as the checking/PK line. Unfortunately Manny's injury took him out of the picture in that role